


Friend

by Aramirandme81



Series: One Word Elaborations And One Shots [1]
Category: The Almighty Johnsons
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 11:41:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aramirandme81/pseuds/Aramirandme81
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An elaboration of one of the lines from ‘One Word At A Time’ which the lovely Elenhin plays with so much talent, and I asked her to challenge me back. She chose the line Friend:<br/>“I told you I was thru with this family.” The voice sound on the intercom.<br/>“I’m not here as family. I’m here as a friend.” Silence, then the door buzzes open.<br/>This is what I saw.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friend

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elenhin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenhin/gifts).



It happens at a thing that isn’t really a thing at all.

He’s been swamped with work, sweet glorious hard-won work, for the first time in what feels like months they really have something to sink their teeth into, and there is no way he’s letting this chance to get back on top pas him by. So for almost two week straight it’s been work, work, work, day night and everything in between. He’s moving beyond tired into exhausted and he knows it. His body’s been protesting the last two days and he has a feeling the weekend in bed he had envisioned will be with a box of tissues and hot tea instead of a box of condoms and a hot chick or two. 

He’d been just finishing up the last draft for the final layout for their latest client when Mike had called him to tell him he was expected to show up tonight to this thing. 

He’d pleaded work, exhaustion, even told him he was feeling unwell and when those failed to get him a pass, he’d started to ask for a reschedule to Tuesday so he can get the job finished first. But doesn’t even get to finish the sentence before Mike growls that he better show and then hang up. 

For several minutes he contemplates simply not showing, but he knows they will only come get him, or worse yet move it to his place. 

So here he is now, in a corner of Mike’s bar trying to figure out why they insisted he be there when the only words anyone has spoken to him was Mike telling him he was late and Axl telling him to move when he all but shoved Anders of the couch. 

He just looks at the beer Ty had placed before him, wishing it was water and came with something to kill both a headache and a queasy stomach. 

He tries asking Olaf what the thing is about but he makes no sense and is busy with Stacey. 

Ty is a little more attentive but also fails to deliver an answer.

“So there is no purpose to this thing other than to get drunk en mass?” Anders asks the room in general. No one answers or even really reacts other than Ty shrugging and Michele rolling her eyes.

“Great. So what you are saying or rather not saying is that you called and all but threatened me with violence and exile if I didn’t show to your booze fest?” The pain in his head is getting worse and he can feel his temper sparking and some of his irritation is slipping out in his voice.

“Relax Anders, if you drink here or somewhere else, what difference does it make? Other than the fact that Mike is much more relaxed about payment.” Olaf says and offers him the joint.

“No thank you. I thought ‘tings’ were sacred? Not just an excuse to force people to show up for shit like this?” He bit out, he really was beginning to feel poorly the room refusing to stay still. ‘Shit, he knew he should have eaten something.’

“They are, you didn’t say it was a ting did you?” Ty asks Mike.

“I said it was a thing at the bar, not a ting. Not my fault he misunderstood.”

“For fucks sake Mike. You practically told me I’d flailed if I didn’t show, and refused to listen when I told you I had to work!”

“You always use that excuse Anders.” Ty pointed out. 

“Because it’s fucking true!” Ander said and winced ‘shit those lights were bright’. 

“Oh come of it Anders, we all know you just want to go get your end away.” Axl snorted from the couch.

“Okay, so I’ve used work as an excuse once or twice when it haven’t strictly been true, fine I’ll admit it. But this time it wasn’t. And I didn’t even refuse to attend, I just asked you to move it…”

Mike interrupted him. “Yeah move it so you could have another excuse? Face it Anders you’d never come if we didn’t spring it on you so you can’t make excuses.”

“I said I’d be happy to swing by on Tuesday. I asked you nicely to move it so I could get some pressing work done. Because I need to keep these clients. You lot think it’s easy to keep clients when you have to leave at the most inconvenient of times to help your family with the most stupid bloody things? No it’s not. If they don’t want on some level to come back to us then even Bragi can only do so much. But do you care? No you don’t. Mike is independent so he should know but no, he’s a builder and people expect builders to take longer than they say they will, and if they make mistakes they can go and correct them later on, I bloody well can’t! Once a campaign is launched it’s out there and no ‘editing’ is possible. Ty works for Stacey so he has a boss who knows and can be understanding since she’s in the same boat, only she can get someone else to handle the admin work for a day or two since she has several employees. Me? I have Dawn, and as brilliant as Dawn is at all things concerning paperwork and the likes she’s as creative as a doormat. No offence Ty I know you love her, but while she’s great at editing and good at making excuses she can’t get clients to stay or find new ones.” Anders had to stop and catch his breath. ‘Fuck was it hot in here?’ 

“Okay so you didn’t want to come tonight, you could have just said so.” Axl says and shrugs, like it really was that easy.

Anders just looks at him.

“Excuse me?”

“You could just have said no.” Axl repeats.

“Axl is right, you should have said it was that important.” Olaf concurs.

“I should have…?!” Anders closes his eyes and counts to ten, twice. Then he get up, slowly so as to not make the room start moving on its own again, and moves to were Ty and Olaf is.

“Give me your keys.”

“What?” Ty frowns, not following but not liking Anders expression.

“You keys, give me your key for a moment.”

They both give him their keys, Anders quickly finds the ones to his apartment and removes them before handing the rest of the keys back.

“Anders what are you…?” Mike begins.

“I’m done.”

“What?” 

“I’m through having my feelings and wants trampled being walked over like so much trash, through being used when it suits you lot only to be cast of and disregarded when you don’t need anything from me anymore, through being called a slut for wanting to feel a human touch that isn’t a closed fist that seems to be the only one’s this family can deliver. I’m through with this god shit and this family. Don’t call me, don’t text or mail me, don’t contact me at all. And unless you want me to change messenger services don’t send Ty and don’t contact me unless it has to do with bills and charges.” And with that he’d walked out, only having to catch himself once on the door frame so he didn’t stumble, leaving the stunned gods and goddesses behind him.

 

Like he predicted he ends up spending the weekend in bed, well it’s the couch but he’s under the duvet so it totally counts, with a box of tissues, tea with honey for his sore throat and the laptop on the coffee table so he can work whenever he has the strength. 

Monday he’s feeling only marginally better and he ends up asking Dawn to come get him because he’s honest enough to know he shouldn’t drive like this, heck he shouldn’t be going in to work at all, but that’s just not an option. 

When Dawn arrives he can see she’s been talking to Ty, so he stops her before she gets going.

“I don’t want to hear it Dawn. It’s done and I don’t want to hear anything about them nor see any of them. I’m happy that you are happy with Ty, but I don’t want to hear about that either or see him at the office. If you have a lunch date or he’s picking you up, he can wait outside the building. No passing on messages from them or letting any of the in to the building either. Nor will you tell them where I’m having meetings so they can just ‘happen’ to bump into me. Are we clear?”

Dawn looks about to say something anyway so with his most serious expression and voice he adds: “We both know I wouldn’t still have a company if it weren’t for your hard work and dedication, but if you disobey me on this in any way Dawn, I will fire you on the spot.”

Dawn gives him another long look then nods. “Okay.”

 

It’s surprisingly easy and yet surprisingly hard to really cut them out. He blocks all their numbers and have Olaf and Mike escorted out of J:pr on separate occasions, Olaf goes with a shocked look on his face and Mike a spitting angry one.

He gets enormous amounts of work done, both he and Bragi seeming to throw themselves into the work now that no one is calling on them to ‘preform for their amusement and convenience’. 

He drinks less, in fact he almost stops drinking at all, and though the urge to flirt and hold a warm body near is still there he mostly resists it by spending his evenings either working or doing other stuff such as reading or painting, which was a long neglected hobby he’s taken up again with great pleasure. 

But for all these good aspects he still miss the fuckers every so often.

Especially on days like today.

 

It’s his birthday and Dawn had brought an apple and orange cupcake with vanilla cream frosting and colored sprinkles with a single candle in it. 

They both know that while Dawn brought it, Ty baked it. And now Anders is stuck just staring at the thing unable to decide whether he should be mad at her for doing this or mad at himself for letting something as silly as a cupcake make him feel so empty inside.

He takes it with him when he leaves for lunch, and ends up feeding it to the birds in the park after the one bite he took tasted even better than he remembered but he could not swallow for the lump that had formed in his throat when he thought of Ty not only remembering his favorite flavor but actually making it for him even when they were no longer family by Anders own decree.

 

He calls Dawn from the park to let her know he’s not coming back to the office but is taking the rest of the day off and tells her she can do so too since they are more than caught up with work and he has no more meetings that day. 

He walks around until his feet begin protesting his choice of footwear for such a prolonged walk, then he heads home to his empty apartment. 

He feed his fish and tries to find some peace in their movements, but today he just can’t. 

He looks at the corner where his paint’s and canvases are but they fail to entice him to so much as move from where he’s standing. Reading doesn’t sound like fun neither does watching television. 

He could go out, have a few and try to pick up someone he could celebrate the fact that he made it another year with…?

But no, he just doesn’t feel like putting on a happy façade tonight. 

 

He’s just standing there when his intercom buzz.

“Yes?”

“Anders it’s Ty can I come up?”

 

Down on the street Ty shifts nervously waiting and hoping for an answer.

“I told you I was through with this family.” The voice sound on the intercom.

“I’m not here as family. I’m here as a friend.” Silence, then the door buzzes open.

**Author's Note:**

> Please feel free to comment or just press kudos if you like it.  
> Both means alot.  
> Also you should be sure to chek out Elenhin's version of the story behind the line.  
> Cheers Aramir


End file.
